Three people were rescued when their shrimp boat caught fire in the Houston Ship Channel, one of the United State’s busiest seaports. Although Coast Guard units and a helicopter were prepared to perform the rescue, a nearby boater witnessed the fire first and evacuated three people from the boat before rescue efforts could be mounted.
According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve Lehman, a fire ignited on the burning shrimp boat while it was about half a mile off the Galveston jetties at the east end of the island, near Port Bolivar. Dense black smoke filled the sky above the channel shortly after 10:00 a.m., alerting many nearby boaters and the Coast Guard’s traffic service station of the ensuing danger. The 55-foot shrimp boat, believed to be the Captain Hunter, was a fixture in the busy hub of the Houston Ship Channel.